For the near future, Nintendo seems to be experimenting with 3rd party games using their 1st party IP. The most recently announced releases are: Pokken Tournament (Namco Fighting Game with Pokemon), and Hyrule Warriors (Koei/Temco Dynasty Warriors with Zelda characters). Namco is also having some kind of involvement in Super Smash Bros.

Pokken Tournament

Hyrule Warriors

Koei / Temco have already made "Metroid Other M", which was regarded as a failure by many. But Hyrule Warriors seems like Koei/Temco's forte. Its unlikely that they'll screw that up. Besides, I'm a fan of Dynasty Warrior games, so I'm probably going to enjoy it.

I'm a Nintendo fan. I think it's unlikely that Koei/Tecmo will screw up Hyrule Warriors, but it still remains to be seen how the game will impact the Zelda fanbase. I personally think I will enjoy it, but some Zelda fans might hate it, and that would be especially sad if Zelda decreased in popularity because some people don't like this game and don't realize it's third-party. I haven't played Other M, but I always heard it was mediocre compared to other Metroid games. I didn't know it was developed by a third party until now, so that relieves some of the feeling I have that Nintendo has lost the touch when it comes to making a good Metroid game.

Oh yeah and Super Smash Bros, I love those games. I never bothered to bring it up here at xkcd fora because there are entire websites dedicated to that franchise alone.

KnightExemplar wrote:Koei / Temco have already made "Metroid Other M", which was regarded as a failure by many.

Not really relevant. Team Ninja was owned by Tecmo, which merged with Koei (Dynasty Warriors). So, it would be like suggesting that Blizzard's "failure" with Diablo 3 has some connection to the development of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. They're in the same pyramid, but at the bottom they're far removed from each other.

And Nintendo is huge. They have over a dozen studios. Their American studio Retro made the Metroid prime series. It was risky for them to hand out the license to Team Ninja. Yet, Super Smash Bros is mostly third party (Brawl was passed around everywhere). On the industry side, there's simply too many people involved for Nintendo to lose their touch. Franchise stagnation is another story.

Fair enough. With the "Dead of Alive" series (including Xtreme Beach Volleyball), Team Ninja sorta dug their own grave on that one. Their portrayal of women isn't exactly... mainstream. I think the internet exploded a bit when they saw the high-heels on Samus, but there are plenty of other wrongs against Samus in that game. So yeah, its more of a "Team Ninja doesn't know what to do with Female Protagonists" thing.

Sun Shang Xiang is generally done pretty well on Koei side. (at least, she's as good of a character as every other character in the Dynasty Warriors series). Koei has a good balance where weak characters with very little damage can still feel very useful due to large crowd control attacks. So that Butterfly girl (who isn't a fighter by any stretch of the imagination), or Princess Zelda herself (Triforce of Wisdom: not of strength or courage) can feel physically weaker than other characters but still balanced in the great scheme of things. SSX for example was a fast fighter with very wide attacks. She excelled at controlling masses of enemies with wide sweeping attacks that did less damage.

Generally speaking, its the crowd control characters who end up being high-tier in Dynasty Warriors. I'm going to bet on historical accounts alone that Princess Zelda is going to be one of the best characters. She's been giving off the Sun-Shang-Xiang (Chakrams) feel in the trailers, who has always been a very highly-rated character through Dynasty Warriors. Midna reminds me of Zhuge Liang (Fan Weapon), with well placed precise attacks far off in the distance. And alternatively,Zhang He's (Claws) style of "motion combat". Zhang He's attacks moved him through the battlefield quickly, but had very little range. Its fun, but Zhang He isn't really very good in Dynasty Warriors, nor is Zhuge Liang. Zhang He's problem is that it was hard to focus your attacks and combo a singular character (cause you're moving around too much, its hard to aim). There are specific attack sequences where combos would go off, but if you deviate from the path (or require a different attack for crowd control purposes), you'll drop combos.

Recently, Cao Cao's (Longsword + Magic) style of combat has been top tier in Dynasty Warriors 8. Link is likely to be one of the best characters if he's a Cao Cao clone (where instead of magic, it looks like Link will be throwing Bombs or shooting arrows and such).

Personally speaking, Zhen Ji (Flute) is actually pretty good crowd control, although it seems like Shiek is much much slower than Zhen Ji. The music attack have historically been very very good: 360 degree coverage, no blindspot, easy comboability sort of attacks. So it is a bit strange to me to see Shiek's trailer and notice that her music attacks are slow.

"[These are] the sort of people who, for example, might want to watch a movie. They might want to go to Disneyland," Miyamoto said. "Their attitude is, 'Okay, I am the customer. You are supposed to entertain me.' It's kind of a passive attitude they're taking, and to me it's kind of a pathetic thing. They do not know how interesting it is if you move one step further and try to challenge yourself [with more advanced games]."

This is a Miyomoto quote going around the internet today from a magazine that hasn't officially been published yet.

I think we all knew this in 2008 when they started catering to the casual crowd. They were catering to a temporary fad group, one that was gobbled up eventually by "Angry Birds", "Draw Something", and whatever else captures the attention of the casual crowd. Not to slight the casual crowd too much, but... they really don't have brand loyalty. I think it is a bit harsh to call them "passive and pathetic" though (maybe it was a misquote or mistranslation??). Hopefully that won't hurt Nintendo in the long run.

Nonetheless, Nintendo is really gunning it for its former hardcore fans recently, so hopefully they've learned their lesson. They're definitely catering to my tastes again, so I'm happy. Maybe its the reason why VGcats has started updating regularly again. I don't know, I always felt like the VGCats comic matched my feelings of the gaming industry.

It's funny because I have a friend who has that passive attitude towards video games. He is a dedicated gamer, and he loves to play what I call hyper-masculine games like Assassin's Creed, Halo, etc. He seems to shy away from Nintendo's cute and cartoony characters. But he also likes to just sit and mash buttons with his mind on auto-pilot, and I have often heard him complain about a game being too hard when I think it isn't a sufficient challenge. I know different people like different levels of challenge, but I have often described his gaming style as passive.

I know that this is the viewpoint of a dedicated Nintendo fan, but I also get frustrated sometimes by the supposed attitude that 'hardcore' gamers have concerning Nintendo's typical art style. It seems that a typical reaction is, "it looks like a cartoon, it must be a baby's game." And yet, the Donkey Kong Country Returns games are some of the legitimately hardest games I've played in my life, and quite a challenge for anyone. And they're funny, too. And Nintendo has a way of taking a game that is easily accessible to newcomers, yet has enough depth to keep a dedicated fan interested and challenged (Super Mario games for example, also Super Smash Bros.) I find the cartoon style to be refreshing, and it leaves game designers open to great creativity. Try going into a GameStop and comparing the Nintendo wall to the XBox or PlayStation wall. At least 50% of the competitor's games have a picture of a battle-hardened hyper-masculine guy, usually who needs a shave and has scars on his face, with a huge gun or sword in his hand like he's ready to take on an entire army (or has just done so). I personally find that unappealing and unimaginative.

I always thought the term "hardcore" to describe people that like "hyper-masculine" games as strange.The real hardcore guys - the people that dedicate themselves to games, that play competitively in pro leagues, or spend hours at a time trying to perfect speed clears - they don't care about what the main character of a game looks like, only that the game is good.And Nintendo have released some very good games (sometimes the same game several times, but that doesn't seem to bother the CoD crowd).

I agree, Xenomortis. I didn't mean all 'hardcore' gamers have that attitude, but it's definitely a trend that I've seen. I consider myself a dedicated gamer, and I often enjoy the challenge of a fair but difficult game. It's just my personal taste, but I've always liked things that are fun and frivolous, like cartoons, and not things that are serious, dark, and gritty, like war and violence (realistic violence. The kinds of violence in cartoons is often very unrealistic, at least from my perspective). Those hyper-masculine games typically have muted colors, overly masculine themes and characters, an unhealthy focus on weapons, a dark and serious storyline, and violent gameplay. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with those things, and in fact I've played several games like that and enjoyed them. But I think it's odd that the video game market has so many games like that, but Nintendo seems to be the outlier in having a large number of games with a lighter, funnier, sillier setting and characters, with unrealistic cartoon violence, and bright and cheerful colors. I personally find that art style suits my taste more, and I'd rather play a fair but difficult challenge in a game like that. But I have seen some players prejudge a game by its art style, thinking that such a game must be designed as a casual experience which offers no challenge for an experienced gamer. It's fine to dislike the art style, everybody has their tastes. But I think it's illogical to conclude that a fun art style and lighthearted humor means it's only for casual play.

I suspect two different meanings of "hardcore" are being conflated - "hardcore" as in "serious/skilled" and "hardcore" as in "18-rated" - "manly" violence games are "hardcore" in the latter sense, but not necessarily in the former sense.

And anyone who says kids can't be hardcore gamers has obviously never been shown up by a 10-year-old who can get all the stars in both Super Mario Galaxy games...

Fuck those kids. Proudest moment of my adult life was my next door neighbour hearing me commentate on Starcraft and asking if I was any good at games. When I told her I was super pro she asked if I could come round and help her kids get the last two stars on Super Mario Galaxy 2. I totally did.

rmsgrey wrote:I suspect two different meanings of "hardcore" are being conflated - "hardcore" as in "serious/skilled" and "hardcore" as in "18-rated" - "manly" violence games are "hardcore" in the latter sense, but not necessarily in the former sense.

And anyone who says kids can't be hardcore gamers has obviously never been shown up by a 10-year-old who can get all the stars in both Super Mario Galaxy games...

Consider the dark and grizzly Mortal Kombat 9 vs say... Marvel vs Capcom 3. Count the number of tournament players who can perform 1-frame links in both communities, and you get a very obvious count on which community is more dedicated to their game. In fact, its gotten to the point where a "grimdark" game tends to turn me off by default.

This "Ryse" quote for example proves that grimdark really is for the modern casual gamer.

"We have this concept we call mashing to mastery. The idea is that anyone can play it and they can mash the buttons and fight, but if you get the right timing you're able to actually master it.

Ugggggghhhhhhhh. Seriously guys? Is this what marketing has come to? I haven't played Ryse... but with comments like "mashing to mastery", I really lose hope in it.

In contrast, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (3DS or WiiU) bathes you in a trial-by-fire by the 2nd boss. Perhaps it isn't quite "Nintendo hard", but it does give that feeling to some people I know. Unfortunately, it has a grind issue and the clunky battle system turns people off. (Some people claim the clunkiness is artificial difficulty). But IMO, play a few bosses, and you really enjoy the "precision" gameplay that Monster Hunter forces you to do. Also, cooperative local multiplayer in a game like this is very very rare.

Ultimately, the entire point of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is to PUNISH THE MASHER.

Spoiler:

Every attack requires you to place and pick your target very carefully. The second fight of the game: Qurupeco, has armored wings that deflect your attacks. And when your attacks are deflected, you are basically in a mini-stunlock... unable to do anything. Qurupeco on the other hand, has a variety of tools that it can do (all with significant 5+ second startup animations that the seasoned player can predict / punish), but the beginner probably will wail on the very large wings, repeatedly enter the "deflected" mini-stun, and get punished severely as Qurupeco then regenerates itself, flies off to another region, summons another boss (hurrah, 2v1 fights), or deal severe damage with a powerful fire attack.

You have 30 minutes and 3 lives to find and hunt down the Qurupeco before you fail the mission... so regeneration and flying away / hiding are the most serious problems. The key was learning to strike the Qurupeco in its vulnerable air sac, while trying not to strike his armored wings... in addition to dodging and rollling out of the Qurupeco's attacks. Or, you can learn secrets of your weapon. IE: hammer users can stun the Qurupeco for like 10+ seconds at a time by striking its head repeatedly, or Lance+Shield can block the fire or wind attacks for powerful counter-hits that can lead to combos.

Learning to strike precisely and accurately every time is refreshing when compared to "mash heavy" games that exist... basically everywhere. Few games are brave enough to punish the player for pushing buttons, but the Monster Hunter series is one of the few that is willing to punish braindead players.

Ironically, I also enjoy Dynasty Warriors. So maybe I'm a masher by default.

Bringing it back to Nintendo, its more or less implied that the game will scale with your skill level. Rubber-banding for example is a much hated mechanic within Mario Kart 8, but honestly its all about dynamic difficulty. Its basically impossible to be lapped in MK8 because of all the mushrooms, stars, or figure 8s that you get... and the AI reacts based on your positioning. So its a great game that scales down for casual audiences, and scales up for the hardcore crowd. Especially with the Time Trials + Ghosts. The Nintendo records are now sitting at like 30% percentile or so, nearly 70% of the Time Trial records are faster than the Time Trial records.

Seriously, the way they implemented Time Trials is great, showing off the bell curve and everything.

Back when this comic was released I would have agreed that times were scary, and that at the rate of those casual/social games were rising and swallowing up other games in its wake it looked like the whole medium could have been sullied. Thankfully I think it plateaued. These games will still exist and so will hardcore games, along with a spectrum of the in between. I feel like as long as I know what I'm getting myself into that there is plenty of room for both hardcore/niche titles and casual/social titles, and there's more information out there than ever as to what sort of crowd they're catering to. The ideal would be to cater to both crowds, but that's practically impossible of course. When it comes to that quote from Ryse... I have PR truesight. I see through their friendly smile and into their soul, and I see nothing but wastes and hunger and suffering.

That said, I'm not opposed to the idea behind "mashing to mastery" or whatever. I've been playing a lot of older games lately and I do find that I prefer the path of minimal punishment for mistakes, especially when it comes to esoteric knowledge situations. Quick saving and quick loading is nice and all, but when the challenge gets to the point that using them becomes a game mechanic in itself, I think that's a little extreme. It's like forcing me to use cheats. I would rather get through the game on my own merit, being punished for my mistakes, but only the mistakes that I feel I should be punished for (a subjective stipulation to be sure). Quick saves don't really solve that dilemma since I often don't know when I'm about to be unduly fucked. I hate to lose when not given sufficient information to account for it on my first go. But it's a fine balance as to how much information might be deemed sufficient. After all, I was that guy that wasn't sure where to put the portal at the end of Portal 2. So, might as well appeal to the lowest common denominator, most would figure. Give the casual players a game they can breeze through, but give the skilled players something extra to strive for to satisfy them as well.

This sort of works, sometimes... It's case-by-case, genre-by-genre. There are some really dumb casual games that have a really effective competitive component, but in most of those cases it's exploiting a bug that the designers clearly never intended. Most of the time these designers don't know what they're doing, and you would have to pay me to play Ryse to find out how well that one works to blend the demographics. (Not that the designers are inept necessarily, but because the industry doesn't have a whole lot of R&D quality time. It's all go-go-go overtime temp workers release date is coming don't fuck up! Is it done? Okay. Surprise layoff party!)

I think fun trumps all for both crowds, and I really hope this cinematic trend dies down (Order 1886: cutscene and corridor simulator). I think a fun game that is also hard but makes it very clear why it is hard can appeal also to casual players now and then. But then, I kind of have to define what "hard" is since it can come in so many different shapes and sizes. Maybe segregating difficulty can work through settings or game modes, like CS:GO has done, but the problem there is the playerbase becoming split.

Essentially, I'm not against attempts to blend casual with competitive, but I am against people pretending they have the magic bullet and are asking if they can shoot you with it to be their guinea pig. I see a spectrum. A great game can fit on a relatively large portion of the spectrum comfortably. Super Mario Galaxy can appeal to the most casual and even some hardcore because it's a great game, but it doesn't pretend to give that competitive fix. Super Mario World isn't a casual game and shifted a little more towards hardcore. A game that tries to stretch across the whole spectrum will quickly piss off the hardcore and generate bad word of mouth, causing it to tank. When I'm not sure where on the spectrum a game is aiming, I'm deeply hesitant.

How do I turn this ramblomatic off?

Nintendo. So, Starfox 2015 was announced. There's no way it could be a Stairfax, right?

I've been practicing the Sm4sh demo and... I'm liking it alot. Mario is an exceptional combo character, very similar to Sheik from SSB:M except Sheik had the whole "fair" kill thing all ready. Mario got bair for a killing move.

Mario's terrible range is made up with his powerful combos and strikes. It is extremely easy to get a 0% to 40% against characters like Link (who has slower aerials).

Megaman has the up-B stunbreak to escape such combos. Pikachu's nair is fast enough to interrupt the "combo" (so it isn't a true combo in the fighting game sense...). Ditto with Mario's nair himself. Marth / Lucina's Dolphin Slash / Counter probably is fast enough to get out of such combos as well... but in any case Mario's up-tilt definitely sets up a mind game that is in Mario's favor.

Any character with slower aerials (and without a stun-break like Megaman) will be juggled before they can react to many of Mario's attacks. (up-tilt to up-tilt, up-tilt to up-air, up-tilt to down-air, up-air to up-air, and of course, nair followups). Even then, the currently known stun-breaks are Megaman's up-b and diddy-kong's neutral-b. Neither really stop the combo (Megaman's arguably puts him in a worse position, losing a 2nd jump and still has to fall down ontop of Mario. Diddy's Neutral-B doesn't actually do anything towards the opponent below him)

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People have also noticed that pivoting is back. I've confirmed it on the demo, but it is very hard to alternate left-right-left-right every other frame on a 3DS. It was hard enough to do on a Gamecube controller...

Good Brawl mechanics are back as well. B-reversals, Wave Bouncing, Pivot Jump bair, pivot tilts... and Melee mechanics like pivoting and fox trotting seem to make a comeback as well. Edge-mind games are going to be entirely new, as the system of edge-invincibility has been completely re-vamped. (To the point where people claim Bowser of all characters... is one of the best Edge Hoggers now).

People are still learning the new tech in this game. Anyone else excited for it?

Several months ago I thought that the 3DS version was going to be passed over by me and my friends, in favor of the Wii U version. But in a very generous gift, a friend pre-ordered the 3DS version for me so we could play it together. So we'll get to play both versions. And I have been playing the 3DS Demo and it's quite fun, so yes I'm looking forward to it.

Here's to hoping Nintendo of America keeps treats the next Xenoblade game better than the last one (not a tough hurdle to clear, but whatever). It looks like there's too much 'Merica in the game for the main cast to have British accents all over again. I am really excited to see how they follow up something as grand in scope as the first Xenoblade.

Other than that, there isn't a lot that I'm overly hyped about. I personally don't see much of a reason to get a New 3DS in the foreseeable future. I'm just mostly waiting for DLC in Smash 4 and Mario Kart 8. Oh yeah, and Splatoon. That looks like a blast. Heck, Hyrule Warriors and Captain Toad also look worthwhile, so I might get those eventually.

On an unrelated note, it blows my mind that Super Mario Galaxy 2 only took up 1.3 GB of space. That is some deep programming magic.

The largest offenders of HDD bloat are textures and audio. Relatively speaking, Nintendo games typically don't have much of either, relying more on good design over fidelity. Bayonetta 2 is a reasonable 14.6GB and I think the difference is clear. I might have guessed SMG2 was 2GB but 1.3 isn't too surprising.

I know it's a bit old at this point, but I've been having a blast with the Wind Waker HD remake. It's very well done, I think, and it makes me appalled that I skipped WW on the Gamecube. Definitely a fantastic Zelda game.

The story so far:In the beginning the Universe was created.This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

I played that. Never finished, though. I'm not sure if I had an issue with the game, or just with gaming in general. (Truth be that I've only ever finished a few games. Anyone here actually finished a Mario game (pre-N64) without warping?)

Also, I know I've completed Super Mario Bros. 2, 3, and 4 without warping, though it's been a long time. I think I've also completed the first Super Mario Bros. without warping but it's been so long that I'm not sure if I actually completed it or just got real far. I never mastered the trick of jumping off a turtle shell to get 99 lives, but I knew about the A+Start trick to continue when I ran out of lives so that's how I would have done it.

Last night I was playing Metroid Prime Pinball on my Nintendo DS, and I probably hadn't touched that game in at least a year. In the first play, I got a great high score, which was almost tied with my second-highest score on my personal leaderboard (just over 18 million points). I was pretty pleased with myself for doing so well on my first play in such a long time, and I was looking at my high score list and pressing buttons when I realized there is a hidden feature in the game. After you play and get a new high score, it'll go back to the title screen and instead of pressing start or A, press B and it'll show your latest score. Then press select and it'll show you a "verify code". Apparently this code was to be inputted on a website to keep track of global high scores, but the website is now apparently defunct so it serves no purpose. I did not see anywhere in the game's instruction manual that described this feature of the game, I just found it by chance by pressing select while viewing the score.

New User wrote:Also, I know I've completed Super Mario Bros. 2, 3, and 4 without warping, though it's been a long time. I think I've also completed the first Super Mario Bros. without warping but it's been so long that I'm not sure if I actually completed it or just got real far.

Cool. Except, what's 4? Not Yoshi's Island? Oh, maybe Super Mario World? I believe I completed every single level (secret pathways and all), including the bonus levels. Never played through every level after winning. Just a few since things changed a little.

I never mastered the trick of jumping off a turtle shell to get 99 lives, but I knew about the A+Start trick to continue when I ran out of lives so that's how I would have done it.

Ah, yes, nostalgia discussion. Now I can participate. lol. I used to be good at that stuff. I'm sure I can still do some of those. I don't remember A+start. Hmm. I think getting lives via a skilled turtle shell jump is much less cheating than a button combo. I kinda liked that most Nintendo made games didn't have cheat codes (except for early titles like you mention).

Pinball is so underrated. Also, I meant Super Mario World. And A+Start makes you begin at the beginning of the world you died in, so if you die in stage 6-4 and return to the title screen, hold A-button while pressing start to begin the game at stage 6-1. I remember that A+Start worked for a few other games in those days, like NES Tetris and Milon's Secret Castle, for example. Maybe Bubble Bobble, not sure though.

If you have any unregistered games or unspent coins, it would be wise to get all that taken care of before the end of March. The last day to claim rewards is June 30, but there will supposedly be dozens of digital copies of games available in February if you have the coins to use up, as well as "a limited quantity of exclusive reward items". Expect the good physical rewards to go fast, basically.

I've been having a blast with the Wii U lately since my 3DS inexplicably died. Smash 4 is still incredibly fun, and I will wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with a Wii U who doesn't outright hate the series. Also I just got Mario Maker, but I'm not really feeling it yet. As much as everyone and their dog seems to be praising it, it just isn't for me. So far it has come across as an overpriced cash grab that is 10 years late to the romhacking bandwagon, and the slow drip of features that should be in the game from the get-go is just insulting. As for the online levels, never before has Sturgeon's law been more apparent.

The Nintendo NX (the codename for Nintendo's next console) was first officially mentioned early last year as something that was being worked on. In an April 2016 investor's meeting, Nintendo announced the release date of March 2017. It's already mid October and all we have to go off of right now are rumors because Nintendo is being strangely tight-lipped about it. That March release date is frighteningly soon given the lack of any NX news whatsoever. What's going on?

Nintendo's notoriously bad about announcing meaningless release dates far in advance, so the best case scenario is that they are taking much-needed time to consolidate a wide variety of third-party support for the NX before launch so that we don't have another Wii U-esque death spiral. My optimistic hunch is that an official public reveal will come sometime before the end of January (complete with the ACTUAL launch window of late 2017), and there will be a ton of playable games at E3 before release to compliment the latest PS4 and XB1 offerings.

My not-so-optimistic scenario is that the NX is essentially scrapped, Nintendo gives in to their diminishing relevance in the console world, and goes all in on mobile devices and their handheld line. They make a bunch of money this way, and then they never look back.

And then also take the Sega route of developing for the other consoles; then we'll get Splatoon VR on the PlayStation. <3

On that note, I spent last night playing Splatoon, first time in a while. Still such a great game, and my skills are pretty decent now (I'm almost always the top-performer on my team). Sad they're not doing Splatfests anymore, and I don't understand the reason behind it - it's not like it took any real resources to do one. But at least I can still get my Squid Sisters fix from my Callie and Marie amiibos.

cyanyoshi wrote:My not-so-optimistic scenario is that the NX is essentially scrapped, Nintendo gives in to their diminishing relevance in the console world, and goes all in on mobile devices and their handheld line. They make a bunch of money this way, and then they never look back.

We have some additional details - something like 4 confirmed titles (including Zelda: Breath of the Wild) and release months for retail and for demo units - and a ridiculous number of leaks and rumours, including a popular theory that the console will be a console/handheld hybrid - fully portable and capable of being played on the move, but also designed to be plugged into a TV. Also, some fairly persuasive arguments that it's going to use cartridges rather than optical media.

It's not impossible that it could still be cancelled at this point, but it's pretty last minute - and with the amount of buzz about the console (in some circles), it would also be a very public mistake. Something would have to have gone very wrong with the NX for scrapping it to be the sensible move.

rmsgrey wrote:We have some additional details - something like 4 confirmed titles (including Zelda: Breath of the Wild) and release months for retail and for demo units - and a ridiculous number of leaks and rumours, including a popular theory that the console will be a console/handheld hybrid - fully portable and capable of being played on the move, but also designed to be plugged into a TV. Also, some fairly persuasive arguments that it's going to use cartridges rather than optical media.

It's not impossible that it could still be cancelled at this point, but it's pretty last minute - and with the amount of buzz about the console (in some circles), it would also be a very public mistake. Something would have to have gone very wrong with the NX for scrapping it to be the sensible move.

(Looks to see what those confirmed titles are...)

All the Zelda demos have been of the Wii U version, and as far as I know there is nothing being said about the NX version other than "we're working on it." I believe the cause of the delays were the scope of the project getting a bit out-of-hand. The original Sonic Generations was promised to be on the Wii before release, and that never happened. I would take that NX version of Generations 2 with a grain of salt for now. Ubisoft has been strangely supportive of the Just Dance series across all the main consoles, so it's no surprise that they would shoot to release it on the NX when there will be a frickin' Wii version too. As for Dragon Quest XI, it is supposed to be released for both the PS4 and 3DS as well.

So far there are no exclusives in sight. None of these publishers would take much of a hit if the NX doesn't pan out (except of course Nintendo dealing the PR fallout for a cancelled console).

All those other rumors about it being a portable/console hybrid seem to be based upon old and flimsy evidence. I'm pretty sure there is at least one tablet peripheral on the market that does that already. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo saw the amount of traction this idea was getting and then chased after it more than they were originally planning. Perhaps the only thing worse than cancelling the NX outright would be to reveal it in a state that is a huge letdown, so that it's doomed from the start.

I'm also wondering how the (handheld?) NX version of Breath of the Wild could possibly hold a candle to the Wii U version. There are already some 3DS games out there that are on par with what the Wii was capable of (Xenoblade 3D, Hyrule Warriors Legends), so maybe it's not much of an issue. Modern-day phones and tablets can already handle some really impressive stuff. However I'm slightly worried about the price point for a handheld device that is roughly as powerful as the Wii U.

Nothing revolutionary, just a whole bunch of details done (potentially) correctly. Pickup to play portable, couch-gaming, network play... if the Splatoon gameplay works as well as advertised, this would be absolutely amazing.

I don't know how much you can revolutionize anymore. The graphics improve, you add VR support if you're into that (though doesn't help for local multiplayer or people wanting to watch each other play), more connectivity... Cross-platform multiplayer and games would be awesome but even Microsoft hasn't done much of that with Windows and XBox. This is a good step, I think.

They didn't release that teaser a moment too soon, did they? That was a pretty solid introduction video. What surprised me the most is that they're sticking with the March release date! That's a bit odd for a new console, don't you think? I guess on the bright side, it gives Nintendo time to iron out most of its kinks before the holiday season, when the real shopping happens for non-enthusiasts.

I want to see more about the specs and hardware. It looks like backwards compatibility could be a thing for digital versions of games, as there's not much room for a disc drive there. I haven't played Splatoon on the Wii U, so I'm not sure if they showed specifically the NX version. That other game looked an awful lot like Mario Kart: Double Dash though!

Also is it just me, or do the tiny detachable controllers look really uncomfortable? I suppose that's a fair trade-off for convenience, and more conventional controllers were shown off too. As long as everything is as lightweight as the Wii U Gamepad and has good battery life, I'm interested.

cyanyoshi wrote:Also is it just me, or do the tiny detachable controllers look really uncomfortable? I suppose that's a fair trade-off for convenience, and more conventional controllers were shown off too. As long as everything is as lightweight as the Wii U Gamepad and has good battery life, I'm interested.

They did look bad, but no worse than a Wii Mote in NES mode.

Serious gamers will get the Wii U Gamepad-Pro look-alike. The point of those tiny controllers is convenience, not for serious gaming.

new console thing looks incredibly cool or incredibly dumb mattering on what I assume it can do.

Like, does it support android apps in tablet mode with nice 1080p capacitive touch screen and an SD slot? How awesome would that be, especially because it would create some drive to standardize the controller layouts of so many games.

Or maybe there's a powerful desktop graphics card in the little base thingy and it uses that to drive 4K displays with awesome graphics while in "console mode". I'm sure those controllers are bluetooth connections too right so they'll work with other android apps?

In my mind if I squint I can see an nvidia shield combined with a desktop GPU and a nintendo software experience that revolutionizes the industry by allowing us to no longer put up with meaningless walls between device classifications.

Or it could be just a Wii U with detachable controller sidey-things. It's probably that... sigh

Title: It was given by the XKCD moderators to me because they didn't care what I thought (I made some rantings, etc). I care what YOU think, the joke is forums.xkcd doesn't care what I think.

So my brother bought me a used 2ds (so we can play Pokemon sun and moon together ) and I am 98% certain that the 2ds is stolen. The parental lock was on that I had to override, there were recordings of some 8 year old singing that his name was Billy Bob Joe, did not come with the original charger, and the new Mario Party game is pre-purchased. Should I feel guilty?

mosc wrote:new console thing looks incredibly cool or incredibly dumb mattering on what I assume it can do.

Like, does it support android apps in tablet mode with nice 1080p capacitive touch screen and an SD slot? How awesome would that be, especially because it would create some drive to standardize the controller layouts of so many games.

Or maybe there's a powerful desktop graphics card in the little base thingy and it uses that to drive 4K displays with awesome graphics while in "console mode". I'm sure those controllers are bluetooth connections too right so they'll work with other android apps?

In my mind if I squint I can see an nvidia shield combined with a desktop GPU and a nintendo software experience that revolutionizes the industry by allowing us to no longer put up with meaningless walls between device classifications.

Or it could be just a Wii U with detachable controller sidey-things. It's probably that... sigh

I don't think Nintendo would take too kindly to allowing third-party apps that they can't skim some money off the top of. I really don't see that changing as long as they are selling the hardware and software at the same time. However, the Switch could bring a breath of fresh air into the world of tablet gaming by generating a serious demand for this sort of thing. That's what I'm hoping for.

Another big question is going to be how they're going to do their online service. If it's similar to Wii I think people are going to be disappointed that Nintendo is going to continue to be behind the times for another 5+ years.